My car's goosed! What should I get next?

Currently I’ve got a 07 Ford Focus estate with 91k on the clock. 3 turbos later they discover the engine has worn out, due to low oil pressure! (It’s the cursed 1.6tdci engine)

So I/we need a car. It has to be a mid size estate (Focus sized). Not bothered about Petrol or diesel but lower VED would be better.

The budget is about 10k

What would you recommend? BTW I don’t have a 5 so Audi is out of the question.

Thanks in advance.

BMW 320D Estate?

Choose something you like off this list.

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/top-100

Another focus with a 1.6 petrol? No complaints about mine (appart from it does 44mpg on the same run my parents 1.6 TDCi does 65+).

With a budget of £10k, you should be able to get something very nice and fairly new. Given that you’re into your biking have you thought about a Ford SMax? Incredibly versatile and is only about 20cm longer than the Focus Estate. Seven seats that fold flat (well all the rear ones anyway), great driving position loads of head room for faffing a round with bikes and kit. I used to drive one as a company car and it was great.

Alternatively the Volvo S40 seems to score very highly on the reliability index linked to above…

Not sure how quick you need a car? But “Vulture mode – ON” we’ll be selling our 2011 (11 plate) Seat Ibiza 1.6 Tdi estate sometime around mid march once the new car arrives. Looking for about £7700. 1 owner from new, full seat history, 27k on the clock. It’s got all the main toys. AC, electric windows all round, privacy glass, alloys, cruise control.

Its under warranty until april/may time.

£30 Per year RFL and 60 mpg.

OP what have you done with your Focus?

A newer Focus and the Volvo S40 are on the list already.

I’m not really into cars as you can tell by the shortlist and living in London we need don’t really want anything bigger as parking is an issue so that rules out the SMax.

Wharfedale, thanks but we need one as soon as possible.

Nothing yet Hora, I just got the bad news this morning.

It’s at the Ford Service Centre with the engine in bits and I owe them £300 for the privilege of them telling me it’s goosed.

On your current car you’ve got a few options IMO:

List on ebay spares or repair

Phone round Ford indies- get a quote on a rebuild.

Hire a berlingo van, buy a replacement engine off ebay and get a Ford indie to fit at an agreed price.

Probably the first is the ideal? Its worth alot more than scrap or low-ball offer IMO.

TBH I’d personally go with option 2.

A VGC mk1 focus and the other £8.5k on holidays/bikes?

Re-engine the Focus?

reengine the focus would be my ideal – finding an engine thats been looked after from a wreckers that doesnt cost a fortune – difficult – its unlikely youll see it running before its removed so it could be a pile……given how bad these engines can be when mistreated/used for the wrong purpose.

Hire a berlingo van, buy a replacement engine off ebay and get a Ford indie to fit at an agreed price.

first time i read that over i read – hire a berlingo van and fit the engine to the ford …..imagine that phone call – “aye yer van just errr stopped working” – “why does the rocker cover say ford sir?”

Me, my grammar and I 😆

When you say ‘engine is worn out’.. presumably that’s the big end and/or piston rings.. not overly hard to fix? Certainly not a £10k job.

Seat Exeo estate?

When you say ‘engine is worn out’.. presumably that’s the big end and/or piston rings.. not overly hard to fix? Certainly not a £10k job.

I agree. Sounds like the garage/aka one of the mechanics is angling for the car for scrap money value?

I reckon it’d be a grand? Although you’ve had three turbos already/want to walk away so maybe the spares or repair listing on ebay is best.

If that main dealer fitted all three turbos I wouldn’t go near them ever again as SURELY they’d have changed the guaze(sp?) and fresh oil everytime they fitted a new one.

if the engines truely lunched 3 turbos in proper turbo lunching ways then id be expecting a rebore and new pistons at a minimum – will that engine take a rebore ?

Id rebuild it on my own dime my self – i wouldnt pay someone else to do it – and youll be lucky to find anyone outside of an engine builders to touch it – most garages these days wouldnt know the inside of an engine if it jumped up and bit them in the arse.

hora – even doin that with these engines after a turbo melt down doesnt help – the engine has a very specific flush proceedure after melt down – and im even sceptical of that – i would run from one of these engines that doesnt have FSH or even hints towards having had a turbo replacement

The Ford garage quoted about £5800 for the repair.

They said they found metal debris in the feeds for the turbo, sump and some other filters/pipes/thingymagics and as there was no soot deposits in the turbo they can only assume the metal is from excessive engine ware due to low oil pressure. There was no warning lights on in the car and the oil level was fine. They only stripped the engine as the turbo failed within 2k miles of being replaced so decided to investigate why it had failed so soon.

I know that main dealers are expensive but even an ebay engine/turbo and other bit’s will cost about 2k then with the labour and ferrying the car about it’ll mount up.

The biggest reason why I want rid is that the 1.6 Duratorque engine design is a complete lemon, it was only in production for a few years as it’s prone to burning oil and killing turbos.

If I drop a few grand on a new engine there is no guarantee the replacement won’t go the same way. Having already spent £2000 on it in just over a year I really don’t fancy pouring any more money in a 7 year old car.

not exactly a lemon – it just has a very specific service requirement that many many home servicers and lube shops dont do – they need to drop the sump and change out the pick up filter.

its the DV6 engine you have thats the same engine as in pugs ,citroens volvos mazdas minis etc etc

its a very very common engine and sadly many of them have been abused by poor cut price servicing.

Id rebuild it on my own dime my self – i wouldnt pay someone else to do it – and youll be lucky to find anyone outside of an engine builders to touch it – most garages these days wouldnt know the inside of an engine if it jumped up and bit them in the arse.

I’d love to give it a go myself but I don’t have a garage/drive/equipment.

Hora.

The 1st turbo was fitted by a Local mechanic (who my brother uses) as it went when we were on the way from Rochdale to Abersoch.

The 2nd popped on the way back to Rochdale from London and was repaired at a Ford approved service centre in Manchester.

This time it went on the way back from Shrewsbury and we were recovered by the AA. I drove it to the the Ford service centre in Walthamstow as it was supposed to be a warranty replair . It was there they decided to do a further inspection and found the metal fragments etc.

The turbo shat itself?

Get a second opinion IMO if its the turbos fault it could be a comeback on the people who fitted it?

Last one I bought with that engine had a tiny amount of carbon sticking the oil pressure valve , causing low oil pressure, that engine was ” scrap ” too!!! But as trail rat said it’s all caused by poor servicing early in life and 2 year 20k servicing doesn’t help!!! Everything now back to 12 month servicing.
The metal fragments are from the turbo bearings seizing.

Edit a real expert is here. Chrisdiesel on your last line, could an independent inspection pick this up?

Ah

It’s very difficult, the main issue that need to be addressed after all the parts replaced is the small oil gallery’s ,if they have coke/carbon build up ( heart attack for a car engine) then it’s very difficult to clean properly I’ve tried and had success with welding rods/compressed air and when rebuilt x3 oil changes with good 5/30 full syth oil.
The “scrap” Berlingo has done 10k since I sold it with no issues.

Funny thing about the hiring of the above Berlingo and swapping the engines as someone read above is its actually possible as they have the same engines in them!

Having resisted the urge to join the masses and get a Beemer, now I have a Beemer, I’d get on other if this one died.

I’ve got an X3 by the way but it’s crap ride isn’t a problem to me on motorways or off road, which is where it spends it’s time. Used for work as a freelance engineer, it’s been on wind farms, hydro projects, landfill sites, dirt tracks, fields and motorways. Takes it all in ints stride at 35mpg.

It’s had a hard 118,000 miles so far too 😀

We had a 4yr old petrol VVTi Corolla (45k), that went in to limp mode one day, with a flashing & beeping oil pressure light.
Totally sludged up.
A big issue in the US apparently, not helped by cool running short journeys.
Toyota didn’t want to know, (apart from an £8k engine swap).

Someone told me of a company called Forte, who do a range of engine flushes, only available through the motor trade. The chap on their helpline knew his stuff. Told me exactly what steps to take. Oil change, then flush in. Idle for 2 hours. Then drain while hot. New oil in, idle & drain again. Then sump & pick-up pipe off. Good clean out. Rocker cover off, & top end cleaned out. Then a diesel oil in for a few hundred miles.

Got it going again, & was still running fine when we sold at (I think) 80k.
The ops engine is a step further if it’s ingested metal.
If it’s got swarf in it’s galleries it need stripping back to a block & doing properly. Garages don’t seem to want to take engines apart these days. 😐

“Someone told me of a company called Forte, who do a range of engine flushes, only available through the motor trade”

it really isnt – its just it isnt found in tesco.